Blast from the Past

“Gardai said Mr Corduff had complained of head and chest pains necessitating an ambulance and two paramedics to travel out from Castlebar. They examined and found no injuries, according to gardai. There is no CCTV footage of an assault and no assault is being investigated by gardai. Mr Corduff had also made no complaint to gardai by yesterday. He spent much of Wednesday under the trailer and was eventually removed at around 4am.” (Jim Cusack, Security Correspondent, Sunday Independent, 26/4/09)

“He had been kicked all over the body and had LOC (Loss Of Consciousness). He had headaches, nausea and vomiting.” (Discharge report for Willie Corduff, Castlebar Hospital, 24/4/09)

1. Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin asked the Taoiseach if he will report on his meeting with the president of a company (details supplied) as confirmed by him in Dáil Éireann on 1 October 2003; when and the location in which it took place; the purpose of the meeting; the names of the persons who were in attendance; and the follow-up meetings or other contacts with the company that have taken place with him or officials of his Department. [23280/03]

We are gathered here this morning to mark the one-year anniversary of the illegally conducted occupation of our community, carried out by our own state forces on behalf of Shell and their so-called Corrib gas partners.

Twelve months ago today hundreds of Gardai were drafted into the parish of Kilcommon to enforce Shell's desire to resume operations on this disputed project, after a peaceful blockade had halted works here for fifteen months without incident.

After two years of daily marches against Shell's Corrib gas project inMayo, the crowd gathering each morning is as large as ever.However, now there is a garda presence to match, in a peaceful protest that has all the signs of a storm brewing just below the surface, writes Sara Burke

Following events in Rossport yesterday, a narrative has emerged of violent protests including the use of a car as a battering ram. Comments from contributors to this site have thrown accusations at Shell To Sea, accusing them of attacking ‘busloads of workers,’ ‘committing criminal damage,’ and possibly using a car as a ram to injure Gardai.

Labour Party president Michael D Higgins has criticised the Taoiseach and Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny over their stance on the Corrib gas issue, and has said that the north Mayo community has "genuine grievances".

He said Bertie Ahern was "distorting the facts" in relation to planning approval for the complete project. He also said it was "simply wrong" to suggest that the Shell to Sea campaign had been "infiltrated".

Back then, in 1983, O’Reilly was interviewed by American magazine Forbes, and outlined how his geologist selected six blocks of seabed and how Atlantic acquired the exploration rights for those blocks, saying ““Since I own 35 per cent of the newspapers in Ireland I have close contact with the politicians. I got the blocks he wanted.”

Minister Noel Dempsey’s latest contribution to the debate over the Corrib Gas project is a claim that a fellow TD overheard a mobile phone conversation on Grafton Street in Dublin, in which the words “riot” and “Rossport” were allegedly heard. Previous outbursts by the Minister for Energy and Natural Resources have been dismissed by the Shell to Sea campaign as “unhelpful”. But this intervention is helpful. It highlights the lack of any meaningful attempt by the Government to resolve the conflict.

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Blast from the Past

Garda whistleblower Maurice McCabe’s first contact with a TD came about because he saw Clare Daly TD on ‘Tonight with Vincent Browne’ talking about policing of Corrib Gas protests, writes William Hederman

The repercussions for Garda whistleblowers Maurice McCabe and John Wilson will be familiar to others who have publicly embarrassed An Garda Síochána. They were clearly acting in the public interest, but their revelations brought the force into disrepute, and the two men suffered as a result. Revenge was exacted – not only by colleagues, but also by way of public denunciation by the Garda Commissioner (“disgusting”), the Minister for Justice (“not co-operating”) and by various other parties loyal to the force.